MUSIC raises productivity on the peasant farms in the village of Mende in Sierra Leone. Poor farmers from Tangail in Bangladesh believe that jute thrives best if it is planted after the full moon, that a reluctant papaya will bear fruit if it is injected with cholera vaccine and that banana plants can improve wheat harvests. It is not so much whether, as scientists, we think these statements are right or wrong (and some of them are 'proven'), rather our attitude towards such assertions that is crucial. And the attitudes of many professional scientists and agricultural institutions will have to change radically if new farming technologies are to help to feed the world's poorest peoples. This is the uncomfortable message broadcast by Farmer First.

Agricultural science ...

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